TURK, the

An automatic chess player constructed in Vienna in 1769 by Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen for the amusement of the court of the Empress Maria Theresa. The automation was a life-size figure dressed as a Turk, seated behind a chest the top of which was a chessboard. It was first exhibited in Vienna in 1770 and later brought to Dresden, Leipzig, Paris, London, and Amsterdam and then to the USA in 1826. Exhibited in the Chinese Museum of Philadelphia, it was destroyed by fire in 1854. Among the different players (usually of a small stature) were Allgaier (1809), Boncourt (1818), Lewis (1818-19), Williams (1819), Mouret (1820), Schlumbeger (1826 and later). About how it was operated H. J. R. Murray said: “The device was really quite simple: a strong magnet was fixed within the base of the chessman and from the inner surface of the chest, immediately below the board were suspended small iron balls by threads. As long the chessman stood on a particular square, the corresponding ball was attracted against the roof of the chess, and as soon it was lifted from its place, the ball fell to the length of the thread.”